#MYANMAR #ELECTION #monitoring #ballots #unsealed #missing #SNLD #MON

Aye Mya Mya Myo, the National League for Democracy’s Lower House candidate for Kyauktan, Yangon Region, has complained to the township election sub-commission claiming the ward administrator was keeping advance ballot boxes at his home.

Ohn Myint, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) candidate, was minister for livestock, fisheries and rural development.

“I do not know how they keep advance ballot boxes in other villages. I saw boxes of advance ballots kept at a makeshift office in front of the house of the ward administrator of Shwepyitha on November 3. I saw six polling stations in another village of Shwe Pauk and only four of which were working. I did not see the correct number of ballot boxes. When we told them, they sealed the ballot box. Another box had to be brought from the house of the administrator and then it was sealed. The boxes loaded with advance ballots should not be kept at his house. I informed the chairman of the township sub-commission. He said they were waiting for the special police to arrive on November 6 and 7 and so the boxes had to be kept at the administrator’s house. I objected for security reasons,” Aye Mya Mya Myo said.

She said the administrator’s house was in no.4 ward in Tada, adding that she would ask where other administrators were keeping their boxes.

The NLD candidate has campaigned in 57 village tracts and 80 branch villages in Kyauktan Township.

Other candidates are Soe Kyi from the Union of National Politics Federation, Soe Hlaing of the Farmers Development Party and Zin Aung of New Society Democratic Party. There are more than 126,000 voters in the township.

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SNLD missing from advance ballots, voters claim

The Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD), often known as the Tiger Head party, says advance ballots did not show its logo in Mongpan Township, southern Shan State.

A SNLD candidate Sai Tun Hla said some ballot papers excluded another SNLD candidate Sai Tun Aung and the party logo during advance voting in Mongpan on November 5.

Sai Tun Hla said: “While we were monitoring in constituency no.2 in Mongpan, an advance voter called Sai Aw said he found his ballot paper didn’t include the SNLD candidate Sai Tun Aung and only had three parties. We’ve reported it to the township commission. We have never heard of such a case. Our supporters are honest and afraid of wrongdoing so they bring nothing into polling stations to obey election rules. So we have no photo record of it.”

He also said the party had already assigned monitors to the 33 polling stations in Mongpan.

The Shan National Democratic Party, also known as the White Tiger party, the NLD and the USDP will also compete in the township.

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We are very much concern about the voting tactics for advance ballots. Now, many have questioned the states’ abilities to protect voter privacy and secrecy as well as the errors in voting lists. In Mandalay, Pyikyitangon Township, the actual voters are around 200 only yet there are 7000 voters in the list.Another big issue is the advance voters are requested not to seal the envelopes, and yet asked them to vote right in front of the officials. The public servants are scared to vote for National League For Democracy (NLD) and those who voted for National League For Democracy (NLD), they were asked to stamp two times in order to become a wasted votes.UEC (Union Election Commission) should look into this rising concerns about advance voting tactics. UEC should encourage the officials in respective townships to abide the voting rights and voter privacy as well as to avoid the threats of force to influence the voting. Voter privacy and secrecy of ballots are the important part of the election process and we would like to urge the UEC to take urgent actions to handle these rising issues immediately. ############## Advance ballots unsealed in Mon State Some advance ballot papers were brought in open envelopes to the election commission in Mudon Township, Mon State, said Zaw Win, the in-charge of voter lists at the National League for Democracy’s branch there. “Three ballot papers from the detainees at the Kyaikmaraw police station, and 21 from the midwifery training class at Mawlamyine were brought to the election commission unsealed on November 4. Since this is infringing the voting rights of a citizen, we object to those votes,” said Zaw Win. Myint Thoung, the chair of the Mudon election sub-commission, said: “The envelopes of the ballot papers from the midwifery class were not closed individually but had been sealed together in a package.” He added that the advance ballots from 147 foreign voters and those from 600 family members of the servicemen have been received. “We get those from wards and village tracts daily. We’ve instructed the concerned officials to take care of the security measures.” Mudon Township is home to 165,376 eligible voters and 102 polling booths.

eleven media Photo-Bo Bo Myint

UEC blames parties for voter list blunders

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Political parties have been blamed by the Union Election Commission (UEC) for the erroneous voter lists for apparently failing to offer constructive help to correct mistakes.

An announcement said political parties did not cooperate enough to correct inaccuracies in the voter lists, adding that all they had done was criticise the commission.

It also said advance voter lists were announced four times nationwide and the parties did not persuade enough voters to correct the lists.

It said: “Although the nationwide voter lists were on public display from September 7 to 14, some of the errors could not be corrected as few voters came to check the lists because of a major party’s criticism.” This was seen as an apparent reference to the National League for Democracy.

The commission said repeated names in the lists caused the duplication of voter ID cards.

“Voter ID cards are now being issued with the aim to ease difficulties on election day. The voters are also collecting their ID cards. As the cards were prepared based on the final voter list, there have been extra ones produced because of repeated names,” the UEC said.

Despite duplication of the cards, legal action would be taken against anyone found voting more than once, the commission announced.

The opposition parties have said that although the UEC was responsible for compiling the national voter list in accordance with the election law, it had failed to complete an accurate list.

It previously gave reasons such as a low-level of errors, technical faults and the media and voter failure to check the lists. It is now blaming the parties.

There appeared no such voter list problems when the commission took responsibility to compile the lists for the 2010 election and 2012 by-elections.